Police identify Davenport Avenue homicide victim as New Haven man, 19

Published 12:42 am, Wednesday, October 14, 2015

New Haven police search for clues after a man was found dead Tuesday on Davenport Avenue.

New Haven police search for clues after a man was found dead Tuesday on Davenport Avenue.

Photo: Wes Duplantier — New Haven Register

Police identify Davenport Avenue homicide victim as New Haven man, 19

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NEW HAVEN >> A city man was shot and killed Tuesday night in the parking lot of an apartment building at 210 Davenport Ave.

The victim was identified by police Wednesday afternoon as Maurice Richardson, 19, of New Haven.

Police Department spokesman Officer David Hartman confirmed Wednesday that Richardson was shot about 9:20 p.m. Tuesday and was pronounced dead at the scene. Richardson was found in the parking lot, a few blocks from where he lives on Vernon Street.

Police cleared the scene about 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, more than 10 hours after the gunshots were reported.

At 9:17 p.m. Tuesday, a caller reported hearing several gunshots but saw no activity. However, witnesses pulling into an apartment complex parking lot at Davenport Avenue and Baldwin Street spotted the victim on the ground, Hartman said.

Detectives believe Richardson likely was the intended target in the shooting, according to Hartman, and police were continuing the investigation. A description of the suspect was not available.

Carmen Martinez, who lives near the scene, said she had walked by the area on her way to pick up her son about 20 minutes before police arrived on the report of gunfire.

She said she hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary but later heard from a friend and her baby-sitter that someone had been shot.

“I’m scared,” she said. “It’s crazy.”

Elizabeth Martinez, who also lives near the scene, said she walks down Baldwin Street almost every school day to drop her young son off at his bus stop, which is across the street from that lot.

“It’s scary because I have to raise my kids around this,” she said. “It’s not easy because I have to walk through this. It makes me scared to walk to the bus stop.”

She said she thinks there should be more police officers patrolling the area because so many children wait alone at that intersection for buses and their parents near the lot where Richardson was found.

“It does need to be safer,” she said. “A lot of kids wait for the bus by themselves. You never know. Shootings occur during the daytime and everything nowadays. You don’t know what to expect.”

Investigators also had a walkway of the apartment building at 210 Davenport Ave. blocked and appeared to be searching for evidence there.

Anyone with information regarding the crime is urged to call detectives at 203-946-6304.